Boating

IRIS NIGHTPILOT

There’s a new player in thermal imaging for boaters named

Iris Corporation. Its NightPilot offers a gyro-stabilized

thermal imaging camera to ease navigating at night. It has

a 320-by-240-resolution thermal core. A sharp 19 mm lens

enables the camera to spot a vessel up to 1¼ miles away, or

spot a human two-thirds of a mile in the distance. $5,000;

boat-cameras.com — Randy Vance

BOTTOM CONTOURS

W

e’ve come a

long way from

tossing a lead

line with tallow over the

side to determine the depth

and bottom composition.

Today, you can see

individual fish, schools

of bait, bottom structure

such as wrecks and reefs,

bottom composition,

contours ahead, behind

and to both sides of your

vessel, and more. It used

to be that we needed to

select a frequency for the

best bottom resolution,

but most manufacturers

today offer CHIRP

technology. Compressed

high-intensity radar pulse

sounders combine a special

transducer with software in

the sounder to emit a broad

range of pings instead of

one ping at a time.

CHIRP sounders also

have a broad range of

prices, with the main

differences being power

and noise filtration. High-

end CHIRP transducers

can cost $1,500 or more.

More expensive CHIRP

sounders can reach to

10,000 feet, while less

powerful ones need the

bottom closer. The noise

filtration not only helps

in heavily trafficked areas,

but it also affords better

bottom-lock at cruising

speeds. To really appreciate

the difference, I suggest

you look at standard and

CHIRP units side by side,

if possible, or check them

out on the same day in the

electronics’ room at a boat

show. That’s when it all

becomes glaringly obvious.

RADAR

I

n addition to providing

eyes through the glurk,

radar is essential to

tuna fishermen because

it provides a long-range

peek at flocks of seabirds

feeding on bait. That saves

inordinate amounts of

time trolling blindly on a

featureless ocean. Though

an open array works best for

this function, you can still

accomplish the same with

a radome.

Speaking of sensitivity,

new solid-state HD radars

can even see crab- and

lobster-pot buoys, a real

boon in glutted areas.

These radars also fire up

instantly because they’re

not reliant on a magnetron

that requires warm-up

time. Another terrific

feature comes in the ability

to overlay a radar scan

atop a satellite/nautical-

chart image hybrid. This

quintessential bird’s-eye

view provides every bit of

information you need to

navigate safely and then

some. For example, bottom

contours change from time

to time; shoals are dynamic,

not static. The satellite

view can frequently tell you

that the buoys marking

a channel are no longer

valid; the channel has, in

fact, moved. Satellite view

readily displays where the

deeper water lives at that

moment. Remember

that hydrographic surveys,

in many cases where

recreational boating takes

place but not commercial

shipping, could be hundreds

of years old.

Radar is essential to tuna fi shermen

because it provides a long-range peek at

fl ocks of seabirds feeding on bait. That saves

inordinate amounts of time trolling blindly

on a featureless ocean.

PHOTOS: (FROM TOP) COURTESY SIMRAD (3), COURTESY IRIS CORPORATION

BOATINGMAG.COM APRIL 2016 69